Of course @Aviation_Intel has the best report on the DC air defense false alarm, which seems to have been a case of something much worse than a flock of honking geese. The incident was never dangerous, but something like it really could set off a war. + https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/31253/heres-what-really-happened-with-that-washington-d-c-air-defense-scare

First, a type of radar glitch called a "mirror track" created a false warning of an intruding aircraft. This only lasted seconds but was enough to set the whole system in motion. Human optical camera & radar operators searched for the phantom target in a backdrop of clouds. +

This seems to be a paradigm case for "normal accident theory." A common but commonly-ignored radar artifact triggering a network of actors, a "system of systems," in the presence of ambiguity and noise.

Now add autonomous combat systems & place in Western Pacific confrontation.